British or American?
Hi everyone. I'm having a little dilemma here and I need some help. I'm American but I've lived in the UAE for most of my life. The thing with schools in the UAE is that they're divided into public school (which only locals are allowed to go to) and private schools. Private schools are either American, British or Indian. Around here everyone thinks American is easy and ****, so most people go British. I've been going to a British school since I moved here and I'm supposed to be doing my IGCSE's next year. The first problem is that I've just turned sixteen, which is normal for an American tenth grader but makes me a year older than my British classmates. Which means that by the time I'm done with my A-levels I'm nineteen. Which sucks. Second of all, my school is cheap compared to other British schools (but the only OKAY school my parents can afford) and that means that they only offer a few IGCSE subjects, only A2 and no A-levels, and have the worst teachers. And the third problem, which is the one that bothers me the most, is that in my school most of the kids are Arab/South East Asian and their first language is not English, which is why my school only offers English as Second Language. It's ridiculous and since English IS my first language and I actually want to go to a good university, I need to do it as a first language. This is why I want to change to an American school which my parents can afford and where I'll have none of these problems. Like I said, around here people believe that American schools suck, and I haven't heard anyone say otherwise. What do you guys think I should do? stay/go? Just be home-schooled? Leave the stupid country? And is British really better than American?
Original post by simonc1993
Why does it matter going into a university when you're 19? Loads of people who'll have taken a gap year will be 19....
If the American schools and your British school are bad then why don't you move to another British school? And I'm sure they can't be that bad, it is private education and what not, and I guess it comes down to you and your effort more than the teachers with some subjects at this level. Just out of curiosity, which emirate are you in?
If the American schools and your British school are bad then why don't you move to another British school? And I'm sure they can't be that bad, it is private education and what not, and I guess it comes down to you and your effort more than the teachers with some subjects at this level. Just out of curiosity, which emirate are you in?
Like I said, my parents can't afford most of the good British schools around here and the ones they CAN afford are not "Islamic" enough. My parents are pretttyyyy religious. By pretty I mean extremely. :/ and I live in Sharjah.
Do you go to VES? Don't worry too much about going to uni when you're 19, there are people in year 12 in my school who are 19 and I don't think it makes much difference. I would say definitely go for the british education system, most of the American schools in Sharjah are complete jokes to my knowledge. Also, I would definitely move somewhere else if I had the choice but since your parents are concerned about schools not being islamic enough it looks like sharjah's the perfect place for you haha
Original post by marcof
Do you go to VES? Don't worry too much about going to uni when you're 19, there are people in year 12 in my school who are 19 and I don't think it makes much difference. I would say definitely go for the british education system, most of the American schools in Sharjah are complete jokes to my knowledge. Also, I would definitely move somewhere else if I had the choice but since your parents are concerned about schools not being islamic enough it looks like sharjah's the perfect place for you haha
No. Although I didn't think VES was bad...is it? My parents would be okay with it as long as they could afford it and it wasn't co-ed. Finding a REALLY GOOD school that isn't $20,000 a year/co-ed is hard. Do you live in Dubai?
Original post by soonenough
No. Although I didn't think VES was bad...is it? My parents would be okay with it as long as they could afford it and it wasn't co-ed. Finding a REALLY GOOD school that isn't $20,000 a year/co-ed is hard. Do you live in Dubai?
Why is the Co-ed bit an issue?
Original post by jelly1000
Why is the Co-ed bit an issue?
Like I said, religious parents. :/
I know it can be harder getting into some universities if you have an American high school diploma. For example in Germany you have to do a 1 year preperation course before you can even study here as it's not considered to be on the same level of a-levels or german 'Abiturs'. Not sure about other countries though...
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